May I have this Dance
by Loki'sArmy0602
Summary: Maria hated formal parties, the dresses, the suits, the dancing and the music. All she wanted to do tonight was go home and curl up on the sofa. However, Pepper had forced her to come to their charity ball. She just hoped it would be over soon.


**30 Day OTP challenge - Steve/Maria. Day 19**

**Set before they got close, so before there kiss on the roof of Stark Tower at New Year's Eve and before SHIELD blew up. (day 10)**

**In Formal Wear**

It was know for Stark to throw big parties. Parties that always ended up with him and a lot of the guest, mostly girls, drunk and passed out somewhere. Pepper would always have to clean up the mess that Tony caused. It was she always did. She was there for him, through thick and thin. And if it means taking out the trash of the hungover girls that threw themselves at Tony, she would do it... For him. So when it came to formal party in a five star hotel, Pepper agreed to organize it for him.

"I don't know what I would do without you," Tony said and Pepper gave him a look that then turned into a smile when he grinned at him.

"I'm guessing you wouldn't be able to live without me Tony," Pepper replied.

The guest list was long, all the Avengers had been invited and Tony had forced them to come since they couldn't escape as they lived in his Tower. Fury, Coulson and Hill were on the list too. Tony also wanted at least some reporters inside, so the formal party could be shown back to front in every magazine. Pepper had invited some of their friends and work colleagues. The whole party was for charity. Tony maybe a billionaire, who nearly everyone thought he was annoying, narcissist and arrogant, but he still did his bit for charity. All money spent at the party would go straight to the children's charities that SI supported.

Pepper had insisted Hill came along to the formal party. The brunette hadn't been so sure she wanted to come and socialize with people she worked with, and hated. But Pepper can be a forceful women when she wanted to and that's how Maria had yes to the invite and ended up in the party.  
Maria was sat at the bar, a Margarita held within her hands placed on the bar. The bartender was wiping down the bar as Maria scanned the room around her. All the men were in suits, colors ranging from black, navy blue, burgundy, white, and cream. Yet Tony, having a big ego, had to have a completely different suit to all the men in the large ball room. The billionaire wore a gold-color jacket with a black skinny tie and black trousers, a white shirt underneath the gold jacket. He was probable to only person in the world that could pull the look off. However, when Maria looked at the genius shoes, he had gone for some kind of blinged-up gold and black trainers. Keeping it casual, Maria thought as the genius moved the sunglasses from his head to his eyes as Justin Hammer walked over to him. He gave a very fake smile as Hammer wrapped an arm around Tony's shoulders.

All the women in the large ball room were all wearing fancy dresses. It was mass of different colors that Maria's head ache. Women with low cut dresses at the front and the a bear back too. Some showing off their legs with a slit up the side of the dress. Others had their tanned sides showing and very high heels. Maria had just pulled the most formal dress she had in her wardrobe. It ended up in her wearing a deep blue dress with black heels. She wasn't entirely comfortable in the dress. She had only a knife strapped to her thigh since a gun would stand out under the deep blue material. She sighed and took a sip of her Margarita, it was her first and last alcoholic drink for the night.  
She noticed she wasn't the only one who felt uncomfortable at this large party. She knew it was probable not for the same reason's. Maria's reason's for feeling uncomfortable was because she hadn't done a perimeter check on the building and didn't know half the people here. She felt powerless and didn't know who was and wasn't a threat, minus Fury and Coulson. The avengers... she had decided they were ok, but still.

"Your not the only one," Maria said as the super soldier walked over to the bar and ordered a beer. He turned his head to the left to look at her, a small frowned on his face. "I can tell a mile away how uncomfortable you are here," Maria told him.

"That obvious?" He asked, nodding to the bartender as he handed Steve his drink. He placed the money for his beer on the bar, the bartender picking it up and placing it in the cash machine. Maria nodded at his question and Steve took a sip of the beer and then let out a loud sigh. "May I join you?" Steve asked, gesturing to the stool next to her. She nodded.  
"Be my guest," she said politely to him. As much as she didn't want to talk to someone, she could deal with Captain Rogers and she was the one who started the conversation anyway. Like Thor, this happiness feeling around the god whenever he spoke- making the people around him happy too- Steve had this sense that relaxed someone when they were around him. Maria didn't want to say she enjoyed his company... but she liked it.

"May I say, you look lovely tonight," Steve told her, looking at her long dress that went down to her feet. Maria forced herself not to blush at the Captain's comment on her clothes as she looked him over. He wore the simple navy suit and tie yet he made it look different from all the other men in the ball room wearing one like his. He had a navy waistcoat to go with his jacket and trousers. He made it look better, if that was possible.  
"You may," Maria said to his comment and then continued, allowing a little conversation to occur better the two. "You look nice too." She said. Steve looked down at his suit and then back up at Maria as she took a sip of her drink, trying to busy herself. Steve smiled at her.

"Tony picked it out for me, saying I needed to dress more this century," Steve said to Maria. She noticed a little confusion on his face, probable because Steve thought that there was nothing wrong at how he dressed, even though he did look like your traditional grandpa. She also noticed Steve had called the genius Tony instead of Stark. Maria saw this a development in the two's friendship. When the two had first met there hadn't been a lot of getting on between them. She hoped that Stark wasn't still calling him by capcicle, or grandpa or whatever nicknames Stark could think of for Rogers now. She could only control her angry to a point when Stark called her Agent Chill or Ice Princess. He was implying that she had no feelings, which was untrue. She just didn't like showing her feelings. A sign of weakness.  
"He has a... dare I say, good taste," Maria said and Steve saw her glance at Tony who was chatting with Pepper, a huge genuine smile on his face. Steve laughed a little.

"The jacket is a bit out there," Steve said and Maria nodded.

"It's Stark though," Maria commented and Steve nodded. The conversation came to a close and Maria decided to take a sip of her drink to busy herself yet again, Steve doing the same. Maria tried to think of something to say. This is something which she hated when it came to socializing. The awkward silence. Not that it wasn't nice talking to Rogers. Maria turned a little to see Clint and Nat on the corner of the dance floor, swaying together to the music. Thor was in the middle with Jane.  
"Captain America, may I have a word?" a reporter came up to them. The women had a recorder in her hand and was in a more fancy dress then Maria, a slit running up her leg to stop way too high up the women's thigh. She gave Steve flirty smile and the soldier blushed ever so slightly, straightening up and clearing his throat.

"Of course," Steve said, being the polite gentleman he was. The reporter asked him a question as Maria looked around the room again. She spotted a young, brown haired man look her way and give her his best flirtatious smirk he could muster. Maria gave a six for effort but a zero in thinking he could get anywhere near her tonight. She turned away from the man, showing she wasn't interested. Yes, the man was very good looking. The burgundy suit looking very good on him. However Maria wasn't looking for someone to sleep with tonight, or even talk to really. She just wanted to stay a long enough time that was appropriate and then leave.  
"I'm sorry about that," Steve said to her, breaking her away from her thoughts. She turned to look at him again, giving him a slight smile.

"It's fine," Maria said, cutting the conversation to an end... again. Steve turned away a little to face the bar, looking down in defeat. After a couple of seconds of silence and watching him, she decided to continue talking. "Do you get a lot of reporters coming up to you?" Maria asked, opening up the conversation again. Steve seemed happy that she had often a little more conversation.

"There never used to be any reporters coming up to me at the start... after I was pulled out of the ice that is. No-one knew who I was," Steve said and Maria couldn't help but notice that Steve seemed to look like he missed it. "But now after the Avengers and everything going on, more people have started to recognize me. Mostly little kids," Steve said, smiling as he said the last part. Maria let a smile crawl across her lips.

"Do you like people noticing you?" Maria asked. It felt like a game of 21 questions was about to start. Steve shrugged at her question.

"I think many people want to be noticed in this world. It's a nice change to have people recognize you and look up to you, but sometimes I would like to be able to go for a run and not have the press following you," Steve said and Maria nodded. She couldn't say she understood because she didn't. Part of her job was not to be recognized, she was part of a secret organisation after all... well she had been part of a secret organisation that had now collapsed.

"Would you like to dance?" Steve asked as the band on the stage started to play a slow, soft song. Maria wasn't all into dancing, however when Steve held out his hand, hope filling his eyes Maria couldn't make herself say no. She split her hand into his with a warm smile which Steve returned. They made their way to the dance floor and Steve pulled her close to him.

"You ever danced before?" Steve asked her.

"Here and there," Maria replied, remembering the time she and Clint had been undercover and one thing led to another Maria and Clint had had to slow dance together. They swayed to the music, Steve leading the way through the song. They didn't stand on the others toes, which was a first for Maria, Clint hadn't been very good at the whole slow dancing thing. Steve smiled at her, looking into her eyes, she looking into his baby blues.

She enjoyed the night after that, Steve and her got a few drinks and talked at a near by table. Listened and laughed at Tony's speech and when it came to leave, Maria slowly leaned over and brushed her lips against his cheek.

"I enjoyed tonight, you made it all more bearable," Maria told him and then disappeared out the door, Steve watching after her.


End file.
